7 thoughts on “Back to the Mosque – Story Flavour”

When I traveled to my story location of present-day Ukraine, I had the plot and characters figured out, but what traveling did was give me the sensory detail—the spices. You can’t know what you’re missing until you’re there. For example, the scent of linden blossoms.

As you know, I grew up in East Africa. From time to time we would head to the States for a few months. Whenever we landed back in Addis Ababa, we’d all step off the plane and inhale, and then exhale in relief. We were home again! There is a spiciness to the air that mixes wood smoke, spice, gum trees, diesel fumes, unwashed people,,and red dirt that is nowhere else on the globe. I imagine India might be the closest to it. The US smells sanitized to me, even after all these years in it. Hawaii smells like fruit, flowers, and sunshine, and Australia like gum trees and something else I couldn’t quite grasp. I’m sure it’s a generalization, because each place has it’s own scent, but these are what I picked up from the places I traveled to. I currently live on the Oregon coast, and here it’s the tang of the ocean, wood smoke, coastal pines, sand, moss (on the trees) and rain. I’ve carried this scent with me since I was a tot, and I finally get to live here. Sometimes life dreams really do come true.

Smell ties to emotions, and it’s important to write with all our senses. So glad you went back. Those photos are a feast for the eyes. My heart jumped with joy at the fountain and the lovely formal setting, which works in a story I’m doing now, too (set in ancient Persia, but the palace has fountains in gardens, and with a bit of tweaking, it helped cement what I needed). Thank you for sharing this journey.